


Miss Babydoll

by MistressOfCobblepot



Category: Gotham (TV)
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Angst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-30
Updated: 2016-06-30
Packaged: 2018-07-19 05:08:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,395
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7346320
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MistressOfCobblepot/pseuds/MistressOfCobblepot
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Emma is Jim Gordon’s niece. She is diagnosed with asthma and often has panic attacks and bad anxiety. She can`t be around crowds of people for a long time. Currently she is an intern at the GCPD where she helps out Uncle Jim and Essen. Emma goes to the benefit gala with Lee where Jerome takes everyone hostage. What will happen when Jerome takes an interest in her?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Miss Babydoll

Today was one of those days. One of those days where the world seemed to shrink around her, crush her into a crumbling ball of panic. Everything was fine when Emma woke up, there was even a little smile on her lips as she poured some coffee and sat down to eat her breakfast. As she sat on the barstool by the kitchen counter, she looked around the apartment uncle Jim had arranged for her to live in when she had the internship this year at the GCPD. It sure was an extravagant place and at first, Emma was reluctant to stay there. It did after all, belonged to Jim’s ex girlfriend Barbara and she had never liked her. Why she wasn’t exactly certain of. Maybe it was due to the fact that Barbara was beautiful and she knew it, never afraid to shove it in Emma’s face every opportunity she got.

_“Doesn’t this look beautiful on me?”_

_“To bad you can’t wear dresses like this.”_

And then those pitiful looks on Emma’s, still not fully developed, teenage body. Yes, Emma was very glad Barbara was out of Jim’s life, even if they didn`t know exactly where she was now that she and they so called ´Maniax´ had escaped Arkham.

But Lee, Jim`s new girlfriend, was different. A warm smile formed on Emma’s lips. Yes, she liked her. Lee was kind, warm and loving. SO very different from Barbara. It made all the difference for Emma, that Lee worked at the GCPD.

Emma had turned 18 eight months ago and Jim had arranged for her to get her internship in a place where she actually knew someone. Her anxiety made it difficult to be around people for a longer period of time, and the asthma and panic attacks didn’t help either. But having Jim there and Lee…it helped. And it didn’t take very long for Bullock to find his way into her anxious heart. How hard could it be not to love that burly, cuddly bear? And then there was Essen…she had trusted Emma, trusted her with different assignments to managed on her own. At first Emma had been so afraid; afraid to disappoint. To not be sufficient, to be of no use. But that all change when Emma found that she could be useful, she did do a good job. She understood that when she got recognition for the work she did, when Essen or Jim or any other working there, would praise her and say she did an excellent work at the GCPD.

Yes, Emma had come a long way since she started her intern there. Slowly she started to trust the people around her and she was able to stay at work for longer periods of time.  
But when Emma grabbed the remote and turned on the TV that was placed on the counter, all that strength she built up, crumbled into dust. Her dark brown eyes widened instantly at the sight that met her and she started trembling with tear-filled eyes. There had been an attack on the police station, those ´Maniax´ with that ginger leader. And they…Emma’s hand flew up and covered her mouth. They had killed Essen!

Emma began to feel wave after wave of fear wash over her and her stomach gave out on her. Running to the sink, she throw up every single piece of her breakfast. As she sunk down on the floor, her heart pounded so loudly and with such immense force, she thought it would come out of her chest. Pains were shooting down her legs and she were so afraid she couldn’t catch her breath. Her palms were sweaty, her face flushed. She didn’t know how long she sat in that position, curled up into a ball. But she was slowly coming back to reality by a resistant banging that wouldn’t stop and that snuck deeper and deeper into her mind, slowly waking her from her dazed state. And then there was this voice…

“Emma come on! I know you are in there.”

“You know I have a key!”

The voice was persistent and wouldn’t stop. _“Why won’t it stop? Just leave me alone.”_

“Emma? Come sweetie. Let’s get you up.”

The voice was closer now and it had a familiar tone to it. Confused, Emma looked up, her vision blurry.

“Jim?” Yes it was him, it was his warm smile and kind, worried eyes that met hers as he crouched in front of her. Emma bursted into tears and threw her arms around his neck.

“T-They killed her uncle Jim! They killed Essen.” she cried against his chest. Jim locked his arms around her protectively and slowly rocked her back and forth.

“I know Emma…I know,” he whispered against her hair.

“Why…why did they do that?”

“I don’t know…” he said weakly and shook his head. “I wish I had been there, I would have killed that bastard,” he gritted between clenched teeth.

Tiredly, Emma looked up at Jim with her reddened eyes and noticed his beaten face. Horrified she sat up, “Uncle! What happened?”

Jim looked away with anger in his eyes, “Barbara happened. She tricked me to leave the station and then had some big goon attack me in the alley.”

Emma stared at him, she couldn’t believe Barbara would do something like that to Jim. After all, didn’t she still love him? “I-I don’t believe it…” she whispered.

“Well, believe it.” Jim said angrily but his expression soften when he looked back at his niece. “Don’t you worry about that now. You just take care of yourself now, you hear me?”

With a faint smile Emma nodded and he helped her up on her feet before walking her over to her couch. There, Jim tucked her in under a blanket and gave her a peck on the forehead, “Don’t you worry. Everything will be alright;” he said to the already sleeping girl.

_~A few weeks later~_

“Lee, are you sure about this?” Emma asked the black haired woman who smiled back at her with warmth in her brown eyes.

“Yes, very sure.” she said as she helped Emma with her hair. Emma sighed as she looked into the mirror. Her former pixie cut had started to grow out and she couldn`t decide if she wanted to cut it again or let her dirty blonde hair grow. Now Lee was placing a silver tiara on her head as she kept smiling at the young woman.

Somehow, Jim and Lee had convinced Emma to go with Lee to this benefit gala tonight and now she felt that nervous knot in the pit of her stomach. The gala would be filled with people and Emma had just started to come back after Essen`s murder. What if her anxiety came to surface and she had a panic attack right there? She knew the best way to defeat her fears was to face them right on. But it was still scary…

Lee saw her worried expression and softly placed her hands on her shoulders, “You will be fine. I will be right beside you the whole time.” she promised with a smile and Emma smiled back and nodded.

“And there is going to be a magician! I know how much you love them.” Lee said and Emma giggled. Yes, she had loved magicians ever since she was a child.

“Now, how about this babydoll dress? It would look beautiful on you.” Lee held up the baby blue dress, “let`s try it on.”Emma nodded reluctantly, “Alright.”

A few minutes later, Emma stood in front of the mirror and she couldn’t believe her eyes. When did she grow to have so long legs? And breasts? She never had breasts before! Looking up at Lee in the mirror, Emma smiled softly. Maybe this evening would turn out great?

Two hours later, the gala was already filled with people and the magician had just entered the stage. So far, everything was fine and Emma looked upon the stage from her seat with beaming brown eyes as she excitedly waited for the show to start. The magician began with a few simple tricks but soon the tricks got more daring and even Bruce Wayne was up on the stage and got his body cut into two pieces. Emma stared mesmerized, she would never dare to do that! As she stared, she suddenly felt like she was being watched and her eyes darted up only to be met by the magicians green eyes that looked wickedly at her. He wiggled his eyebrows at her and Emma blushed when she felt a heat flush her cheeks.

_“What a delightful little doll,”_ Jerome thought as the girl`s cheeks was painted in a soft, pink blush. _“I sure could have some fun with her.”_ Jerome decided to speed up this show a bit so he asked the deputy mayor up on the stage. Barbara rolled out a table filled with knifes and Jerome smiled at the audience.

“By the way…nobody here is getting out alive.” he said and threw a knife into the man’s chest.

Everything happened so fast. Suddenly the deputy mayor got a knife in his chest and the woman that helped the magician was…was Barbara! Then the shooting started and Emma felt how everything around her got blurry and her heart started to pound faster. In her panicking state, she didn`t notice all the things that happened around her. How Lee was placed on that spinning board and Barbara whispering something in the magician’s ear and then looking at Emma.

She didn’t came to until she heard a teasing voice calling her name.

“Hey Emmaaaa, Miss Babydoll.”

Looking up, she met the magician’s eyes again and now he had removed his mask, fake beard and hat. The young ginger who met her eyes looked familiar somehow…  
Wide-eyed she stared at him a it suddenly dawned to her. Of course! It was him, Jerome, the guy who killed Essen!

“Come up on the stage little doll.”

Terrified she looked up at him, to afraid to move a muscle. Emma felt her heartbeat speed up tenfold and tears welled in her eyes.

“Hey! You! Little girl.” Jerome’s voice could be heard somewhere in all her panic but she couldn’t focus, Emma didn’t want to focus. All she wanted was to be gone, to be anywhere but there. Slowly she felt her chest tightening and it became more and more difficult to breath.

“There is no use,” Barbara said to Jerome. “She is a very unstable girl…suffers from anxiety and panic attacks. And she has asthma. Just leave her alone…forget what I said.”

Jerome ignored her with a wide grin and jumped off the stage, slowly walking towards the now shaking girl. As he stood before her, he reached for her purse and opened it. 

Searching inside, he found what he was looking for and took it out with a victorious smile. Then he sat down next to Emma and firmly placed his hands on her shoulders.

“Listen to me Emma. Listen to my voice doll.”

_There was a deep, soothing voice somewhere, calling out her name._

“Here, you need to take this.” the voice continue and something was gently placed against her lips. Recognising her inhalator, Emma sealed her lips around it and inhaled deeply.

“Good doll. Now…let it do its magic.”

As her breathing slowly came down to a regular rhythm, Emma’s vision got clearer and she found herself staring into a pair of mesmerising green eyes. Somehow, even though Emma knew that this boy had killed Essen and a lot of other people, she didn’t get scared this time. There was something calming about staring into those green eyes and be met by that little smirk that curled his lips.

Jerome studied the girl’s brown eyes thoroughly and he could clearly see that the fear in them was gone. The eyes he met looked back at him with a calmness and… Jerome smirked, was it a bit of curiosity he could detect in those brown pools?

“Come here babydoll.” he grinned and reached out a hand towards her. Emma took it without hesitation, Jerome’s big hand wrapping around her smaller one and she felt nothing but calmness and peace in her heart. How could this be? How come she wasn’t afraid anymore? Was it because he had just helped her like no one could? Except for uncle Jim.  
Jerome led her up onto the stage and Emma kept staring at the ginger who held her hand. She couldn’t believe she could be so calm, so unafraid around him. But somehow he made her feel secure amongst all this craziness. Emma found herself clutching on to him for dear life, both her hands squeezing his big, warm hand as she stared around the room on all those people. There were so many people…

Jerome grinned toothily when Emma held on to him so tightly, as if she was glued to him like a stamp on a envelope. Then he saw the look in her eyes, that fear returning in those brown eyes. “Look at me, babydoll,” he said and turned her head around with his index finger on her chin. Emma looked up into those green eyes when he turned her head, his light touch causing small bumps to appear on her skin.

“Concentrate on me and nothing else, okay babydoll?” Emma nodded and held her gaze on him who now was her only safeline in this room filled with craziness. Barbara walked over to them and held out a phone to Jerome. He grabbed it and soon found the number he was looking for. He dialed the number as he laughed that maniac laugh of his.

“Sorry Jimbo. Just little old me.” he grinned, “Are you outside? You are, aren’t you? Oh, goodie,” he laughed. “Breathe James. I haven’t touched a hair on your girlfriend’s pretty little head. Or your niece…” Jerome paused for a moment. “That`s right, I have her too. See for yourself. It´s live television after all.” Jerome laughed and stared into the camera.

Emma watched as Jerome started making demands and threatened to kill people if he didn’t get what he wanted. Everything felt so unreal to her, like she was watching a movie. She couldn’t quite grasp the fact that she was in the midst of all this madness. The only thing that felt real was the hand she still held so desperately, afraid to loose the only thing keeping her perched in reality.

Then there was a deep voice telling Jerome to pack up his things and leave. Emma recognized him as Theo Galavan, he had been a few times at the police station. He came up on the stage and continued talking to Jerome as Emma kept her hands wrapped around Jerome´s. Suddenly Barbara banged Galavan’s head with a hammer and Emma stared as he fell to the floor.

The next couple of minutes played out fast before Emma’s eyes. Jerome called out for Bruce Wayne to come up to the stage again and suddenly she found herself without a life line to hold, without anything keeping her to reality and not panicking. Her heart started pounding viciously inside her chest the moment the warm safety of Jerome`s hand slipped away and she watched in a daze how he had a knife against Bruce’s throat. Emma wanted to scream at him to stop, to ask why he did all of this but nothing came out. She stood frozen to the ground, unable to move a muscle as she watched what enfolded in front of her. Somewhere in her dazed mind, she heard Jim’s voice speaking, like a muffled murmur in a far distant land. It didn’t reach her mind completely, it didn’t soothe her like it used to. Emma was far too gone in this movie that was played in front of her. In this movie, Galavan had woken up and was standing behind Jerome.

The moment Galavan slid the knife into Jerome`s throat, slicing through flesh and releasing a small river of blood, Emma heard the most chilling scream of her life. She never grasped the fact that it came from her as her eyes was glued to the movie in front of her. Jerome, her savior, the only one except for Jim, who had managed to calm her down and make her feel safe, was falling to the floor and slowly dying before her eyes. The horrifying scream only ended when Emma felt Jim’s arms around her and his soothing voice that calmed down her breathing and relaxed her nerves. The scream transformed into a sob that seemed to linger on forever, until the end of time.

_~A year later~_

It had been a tough and struggling year for Emma. Jerome’s death had affected her more than she could admit to anyone, especially not to Jim. He would never understand or accept it, he was far too protective of her. But the truth was, that she had slowly come to realise she had fallen in love with Jerome in those very few minutes she spent with him.  
Emma had to quit her internship at the GCPD. She couldn’t stay there anymore, after what took place in that benefit gala, she had stepped right back to the place she was before. Being around to many people for too long was to hard and Emma simply hadn’t the strength anymore to keep trying. Jim understood that but he also told her that she had to face her demons at one point. And of course she understood that too. But just not right now, not yet. Everything everywhere seemed to remind Emma of what happened back then. Everything reminded her of him. And that was to much for her to handle. She rather stayed inside her apartment where she was safe, where she could stay with her new found love for books that took her away to another world, to another place where he never existed. And out there she didn’t feel safe anymore, she didn’t have her safeline anymore. Not the one she wanted anyway.

But little did she know that everything was about to change.

It was a rather sunny saturday morning and when Emma opened the fridge, she realised she had absolutely nothing home for breakfast. So with a deep sigh and an anxious heart, she opened the front door and walked outside. This was one of the few times she could step outside her safe zone. Little walks over to the small grocery around the corner to get what she needed and then quickly walk home again. Jim and Lee would come over a couple a times every week and the usually took her outside to visit the park for a picnic or just a walk. And Emma would comply for their sake, because they probably needed it more than she did, they needed to feel that they did something to help her.

When Emma got back home, she put on some coffee before going back to her bedroom to make her bed. As she lifted her pillow, she noticed a small piece of folded paper on the sheets. Frowning, she picked it up and unfolded it. Her eyes widened in confusment and shock as she read the word that was handwritten on the paper.

_Hello, babydoll._

“Hello, babydoll.”

When those words was spoken in that deep, dark voice she recognised all too well, Emma thought it was an illusion. With a thumping heart, she closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, shaking her head to clear her mind.

_“It is just my crazy mind hallucinating things. That’s all.”_

But if it was an illusion, how could those strong arms that snaked around her waist feel so real? How could that nose that snuggled her neck, inhaling her scent, feel so real? How could those soft lips that brushed against her skin feel so real? How could that soothing voice whispering her name feel so real?

Opening her eyes, Emma turned around in his embrace and looked into those green eyes she recognised all too well, with a big smile on her lips.

Everything would be alright now.


End file.
